SOAR plan questioned

Move to privatize punitive school

Posted: Friday, February 05, 2010

By Ryan Blackburn

More than two dozen teachers from Clarke County's punitive alternative school turned out Thursday night to hear how Superintendent Philip Lanoue believes a private company could do a better job and save the school district money.

Lanoue pitched his plan to board members to close SOAR Academy and hire Nashville-based Ombudsman Education Services for $1.2 million to run a program for those students who break the most serious school rules.

"We need to look at a program that's open, flexible and can meet the needs of our students," Lanoue said.

The traditional-model alternative school isn't working, Lanoue said, because too many students on a range of grade levels are lumped into the same classrooms and required to meet the same expectations.

Ombudsman could give students more one-on-one experience with teachers and allow them to follow personalized learning plans, so more students could make steady progress and graduate, he said.

Ombudsman teachers and staff work with students individually to set weekly and daily goals. Students spend 70 percent of their time working on computers to earn credit and work in smaller classes. In the program, some students have improved a grade level or more in math and other academic subjects in less than a year, Lucia said.

At the company's schools across the country, 80 percent of eligible students graduated last year, Lucia said.

Douglas County High School increased its overall school graduation rate by 6.1 percent last year, she said. At Camden High, the graduation rate increased by 8.1 percent.

Many of the current SOAR Academy teachers openly doubted those results, though no one from the audience was allowed to address the school board.

Some questioned the Ombudsman data and asked how the program would handle students who've committed violent offenses or lack respect for authority.

"This is the stuff we're dealing with every day," said Isom Weems, who teaches employability skills at SOAR. "Now you're telling us by putting them in a different situation that everything is going to be rosy?"

Board members questioned how Ombudsman would deal with disruptive students, but Lucia said there's very little discipline problems in the company-run classes.

"It's very inviting. It's not what they're used to," Lucia said. "They are re-directed, so I think we see a lot less of that."

Most Ombudsman teachers report that students' attitudes change because of their new environment and knowing teachers generally care for them, she said.

"It's a philosophy that just seems to work with this population of students," Lucia said.

The answer didn't satisfy SOAR teachers, who would lose their jobs if the school closes.

"Every time she was asked the question (about discipline), she talked about the students that want to learn. We deal with the students who don't want to learn," Weems said.

According to Lanoue's plan, SOAR's more than 30-member teaching staff would lose their current jobs but might be hired into other open positions in the school district if they are qualified.

Under the proposed deal, Ombudsman would offer three- and five-hour classes for up to 125 high-school and 50 middle-school students at three sites.